Before he sprained his ankle in Friday night's game against the Denver Nuggets, D'Angelo Russell's rookie season had finally hit the fast track. The steady evolution within various areas of his game has been easy to see, and all progress is good progress considering where he was earlier in the year.
The first couple of months of Russell’s NBA career were, more or less, a soul-crushing slog.
Seemingly every weakness jammed deep inside his college scouting report surfaced before all of the good stuff could: He settled for pull-up mid-range jump shots when more effective drives into the paint were available. He lacked lateral quickness on the defensive end, couldn’t finish around the basket and wasn’t hitting outside shots—particularly those off-the-dribble sparks that separate elite point guards from the very good.
It was a tad worrisome but thankfully not a death blow.
During his first 20 games, all starts, the then-19-year-old averaged 11.0 points (on 1.1 free-throw attempts), 4.7 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 2.2 turnovers in 27.7 minutes every game. He shot 41 pe ...
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Article written by Michael Pina
LA Lakers Rookie D’Angelo Russell Is Turning Heads While Finishing Strong
March 26th, 2016 by Michael Pina Leave a reply »
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